THE teacher recruitment crisis in Wales is laid bare today as an authoritative report reveals that schools all over the country are struggling to fill posts.

According to a survey of almost 80% of head teachers by the General Teaching Council for Wales, secondary schools are struggling to fill posts in almost every subject.

In shortage subjects such as science and Welsh the average number of applicants has plummeted over the past 12 months. Many posts in Welsh-medium education have not been filled.

GTCW chief executive Gary Brace said, "It is vital that we get to grips with the recruitment problems head teachers face. Clearly heads don't believe they have enough choice of applicants to make the appointments they want. In some cases they had no choice at all."

The GTCW surveyed 181 heads of secondary schools and they reported that they were increasingly resorting to poaching, headhunting or other "innovative" means to fill vacant posts.

On average there were only 4.8 applicants for every maths teacher's job, 4.7 for science, 3.8 for physics and a mere 2.7 for Welsh as a second language. Apart from physics, all represented falls from last year's survey, with the biggest drop being in science, down from 7.5.

There were 24 secondary posts for which no applications were received and vacancies for Welshmedium posts typically attracted only one or two candidates. About one in 10 posts at secondary level remained unfilled because heads could not find suitable people. Many of those who do enter the profession do not stay long or tend to jump at the chance of early retirement.

The survey found that the primary sector had a stable teaching workforce-with no vacancies in 67% of schools during the first eight months of this year and large numbers of candidates for every job which did become available. However, the heads of primary schools revealed concerns that workload and bureaucracy were leading to increased demands for early retirement and a reluctance among teachers to take posts of responsibility such as deputy headships. Primary heads also complained of difficulties in getting suitable supply teachers.

The GTCW report shows that 253 secondary and 303 primary teachers who had been working in the schools which responded to the survey left the profession in the January-August period. Almost half of them had taken early retirement.

One of the main areas of concern is the impact that the teaching crisis will have on the Welsh language.

Plaid Cymru's education spokesman at the National Assembly, Gareth Jones, called last night for swift action by the Assembly to resolve the problems.

"Pupils learning the language have no opportunity to take it up in further education or at university level," he said. "Just under 3% of courses at higher-education level are taught through Welsh. Even on the basic assumption of 20% of the nation speaking the language it falls far short of the requirement.

"Clearly the message to highereducation colleges and universities is to look carefully at this, but the impetus has to come from government. Already around #1m has been invested in language skills, which will improve the situation, but I don't think it's radical enough.

"It is sad when you think of the waste of the Welsh language, where good progress is being made at certain levels but then there's a fall-off, and we can't sustain that."

Geraint Davies of the teachers' union NASUWT said the twin problems of bureaucracy and illdiscipline were encouraging teachers to leave the profession and putting others off joining.

Edwyn Williams of Ucac said, "The Government has a golden opportunity because there are things it can do to cut bureaucracy. If the teachers can work on teaching pupils I think we will have students looking at teaching as a profession."

The GTCW report on its extensive survey of 1,447 head teachers around Wales will be presented to a conference of the main education bodies in Cardiff today.